


Lessons from the Past

by 1Secret1



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-25
Updated: 2020-07-30
Packaged: 2021-03-05 06:07:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,748
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25499590
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1Secret1/pseuds/1Secret1
Summary: Everyone always forgot Lloyd grew up at Darkely’s, so when he does put some of the things he learned there to good use, the others always seem so surprised.
Comments: 13
Kudos: 138





	1. Sleight of Hand

Whoever had first said: “some things are better left in the past” was a pretty smart person. At least, that’s what Lloyd thought. 

Given his childhood though, he figured it was perfectly reasonable to forget the past. 

But sometimes, the past has a way of jumping out at you. And unfortunately, sometimes the past helps you out in tricky situation. 

Or just any situation that it calls for. 

Everyone always seemed to forget that Lloyd grew up in a school dedicated to turning kids into the next generation of evil masterminds. 

And there were certain things that had been taught there that had occasionally been helpful. 

Occasionally, is the key word. 

After all, some of the lessons that had been taught were things that Lloyd was never, ever going to mention to the Ninja. 

Not that he didn’t trust them, but there were just some thing that they wouldn’t understand. 

So Lloyd avoided talking about Darkely’s. 

Avoided it, that is until a situation called for a certain skill he had picked up there. 

One of those said situations happened one weekend when the Ninja were trailing a gang of crooks who had stolen blueprints. 

The blueprints belong to Borg tower, which was why the Ninja were following the criminals instead of stopping them then and there. 

“Ugh,” Jay groaned from his position next to Lloyd. “This is pointless!” 

“Hey,” Cole spoke through the com set all the Ninja were wearing. “Don’t blow your cover!” 

“Cover?” Jay began, and Lloyd all but facepalmed. “What cover? We are in the middle of a mall! And those crooks don’t look like their going anywhere fast anytime soon.”

Jay was right. The crooks had been strolling around the mall, slurping down smoothies and window shopping. 

Everyone was starting to get antsy. Even Zane. 

“Well we can’t just let them get away.” Lloyd said as he watched the two men out of the corner of his eye. 

“I’m not saying we should let them get away,” Jay whined. “But isn’t there something we can do that would let us leave this mall sooner? I already missed my TV show, I don’t want to be stuck here all day.” 

“Jay’s right,” Kai said. Lloyd could see him sitting next to Cole a little ways away. “This is getting ridiculous.”

“Well,” Zane spoke up. “We could place a tracker on one of them. That way we would be able to leave here, and still find there hideout.” 

“Why didn’t you suggest that earlier, Zane?” Kai hissed. “We could’ve been out of here ages ago!”

“Because,” Zane said. “It would be rather difficult. After all, we’d have to do so without either of them noticing.” 

“Well, who’s the best at stealth?” Cole asked.

Kai spoke up first, which was no surprise to Lloyd. “Me, obviously.” 

“No way,” Cole said. “You draw way too much attention to yourself. They’d see you coming from a mile away. Clearly it should be me.” 

“Nuh uh!” Jay exclaimed. “I’ve always been the best at stealth. I’ll do it.” 

“That is not true,” Zane told Jay practically. “Last time we had a stealth mission, you were the one who blew our cover. I should do it, since I am the best.” 

The Ninja all broke out in argument. Lloyd groaners. This was giving him a headache.

Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore. “Everyone, shut up. I’m gonna do it.” 

Kai scoffed. “Yeah, like your the best at stealth.” 

Lloyd ignored Kai. “Zane, do you have a tracker?” 

“Of course.” Zane replied. 

“Good,” Lloyd nodded. He stood up from his position leaning against the wall and made his way over to Zane, who was sitting by the coin fountain. 

Lloyd didn’t say anything, he just held out his hand. Zane gave him the tracker without a word. Apparently Zane trusted him to get this done.

“Be careful, Lloyd.” Cole’s voice came over Lloyd’s earpiece. “These guys aren’t your typically crooks. They actually pay attention to their surroundings.” 

“Relax,” Lloyd told the Black Ninja. “I’ve got this.” 

One of the things Lloyd has picked up at Darkely’s was pickpocketing. It want something he was overly proud of, but he had been one of the best at it in school. 

Which is how Lloyd knew exactly how to plant the tracker on the men without them noticing. 

He pulled his green hoodie up over his blond hair, and slouched over as he walked. 

He then made his way towards the men, shuffling his feet a little while looking down at his phone. 

As he drew near, he “tripped”, and bumped into one of the men. 

The man yelled an expletive at him, and Lloyd just muttered out an apology.

He then made his way back to the Ninja. 

“Okay, lets go.” Was all he said. He didn’t wait for the Ninja before making his way towards the mall exit. 

The other caught up to him quickly. 

“Uh, Lloyd,” Cole began. “We aren’t done here yet.”

“Yes we are,” the green ninja said. 

“You didn’t place the tracker!” Kai exclaimed. 

“Didn’t I?” Lloyd asked with a smirk. 

Zane suddenly spoke up. “He did place the tracker, actually.” 

“What?” Jay yelped. “When? I didn’t see him do it!” 

“Exactly,” Lloyd pointed out. “You weren’t supposed to. Also, I grabbed these while I was at it.”  
Lloyd held up the blueprints.

The Ninja all started taking at once, demanding an explanation. 

Lloyd just shrugged. “I’m a pretty good pickpocketer. One of the best, actually.” 

“What?” Kai asked in disbelief. “Where in the world did you learn to do that?”

Lloyd shot him a look. “I did grow up in a school dedicated to teaching evil.”

That shut the others up pretty quickly. 

No one mentioned the incident again. Not even when they busted the crooks in their hideout, stopping their planned heist on Borg Industries. 

Lloyd was pretty sure they just didn’t know what to say. After all, Darkely’s had always been a touchy subject. 

But Lloyd figured that at least they wouldn’t question his stealth abilities next time. 

And not having to listen to his brothers argue over who was the best at stealth was totally worth it.


	2. Breakout

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m so blown away by how liked my story apparently is! Thank you all so much! It really means a lot to me, knowing that my story is actually liked! I hope this next chapter is good too. Sorry if it was a little disappointing; I just really wanted to get another chapter out for you all.   
> And if anyone had some ideas for the next chapter, let me know! Happy reading! :)

“Well this is just great!” 

The fire ninja’s voice echoed around the small room. Lloyd glanced up from his position sitting against the cold metal wall. 

“Someone remind me; whose brilliant idea was it to sneak into the Dark Dragon’s stronghold again?” 

“Hey!” Nya exclaimed. “My idea was not bad! It’s not my fault you guys are no good at stealth.” 

“We are too stealthy,” Kai shot back childishly. 

Lloyd sighed. The mission had been going great. Nya’s plan was actually pretty foolproof. But Lloyd should’ve figured that the Dark Dragon’s—a new gang that had been becoming a real problem as of lately—would have good security. 

Indeed, the Ninja certainly hadn’t been expecting the amount of guards and security measures that the Dragon’s had. Their stealth approach had been working just fine, though, so they had decided to proceed as planned. Of course, no one had been accounting for the dust in the rafters causing Jay and then Kai and then Cole to sneeze. 

It didn’t take long for the Ninja to be surrounded and thrown into the small holding cell they were currently residing in. 

The siblings started shouting at each other, and soon Cole and Jay had been dragged into the fight. 

Lloyd figures he should probably stop the fight before it escalated anymore. “Knock it off. It doesn’t matter whose plan it was. What matters now is getting out of here.” 

“Agreed,” Zane finally spoke up. He had been sitting opposite of Lloyd. “Every minute we waste arguing only lowers our chances of escape before the Dark Dragon’s boss arrives.” 

“Zane’s right,” Lloyd said. “We need to get out of here, and we need to do it quickly and quietly.” 

“So no sneezing, Jay!” Kai said. 

“Hey, Jay exclaimed. “I’m not the only one who sneezed. Besides, I can’t help it if dust sets off my allergies.” 

Lloyd sent Kai and Jay a glare. “Will you two please stop it!” 

Kai rolled his eyes, but the red and blue ninja stopped their argument. 

“So,” Nya began. “How are we gonna get out of here. They took all our weapons.” 

“Not to mention our phones,” Jay whined. 

Lloyd sighed, knowing that what he was going to do would only cause questions he really didn’t want to answer. 

“Nya, I don’t suppose you happen to have any hair pins, do you?” 

Nya gave him a confused look. “Yeah, I’ve got a couple. Why?” 

“I need one.” 

Nya was puzzled, but she complied without any more questions. 

The holding cell they were in consisted of three metal walls (which were made of vengestone) and bats making up the final wall (also vengestone). 

Reaching through the bars, Lloyd carefully stuck the hair pin into the locking mechanism. It was only a minute or so later that the Ninja all heard a quiet click before the bars swung open. 

“Okay,” Kai began. “How the heck did you do that?” 

“Is this gonna become a thing every time I do something like this? You all being so shocked that I have mad skills.” 

“No,” Cole said. “We just wanna know where you learned to do that. And also, any chance you can teach me?” 

“Oh, me too!” Jay exclaimed. “I want to learn too!” 

“Yeah,” Nya said. “I want to learn how to do that.” 

Lloyd sighed. “I learned it at Darkely’s, okay.” 

“Oh,” was all Cole said. The others didn’t say anything, but Lloyd saw them all glance away. 

“And as for lessons...” Lloyd began, hoping to change the subject from his childhood. “Maybe I’ll teach you, maybe I won’t.” 

“Aw, come on Lloyd,” Kai all but whined. “You gotta teach us!” 

“Yeah,” Jay matched Kai’s tone. “Please?” 

Lloyd smirked. Stepping out of the cell he started to make his way down the hall. The Ninja scrambled after him. 

“How about we first get out of here, and then I’ll think about.” 

The Ninja all burst into quiet complaints. Lloyd just smiled. 

As much as he disliked talking about his old boarding school, the skills he learned their did come in handy. And honestly, it was kinda worth it just to see the shocked look on the other’s faces. 

Now he just had to decide whether he was actually going to teach them all his jail breaking skills....


End file.
